The seeds of this
radical chopper were formed in the minds of two boyhood friends almost
three decades ago and finally took form on a paper napkin two years
ago. Talk about a long gestation period! "Back in the seventies,
my best friend, Greg Zack, and I always dreamed about big bore Panheads
and how one day, we would build one," says Jacques Charton, the
owner of this dream come true.

Fast
forward a good 20 years, and the scene is a different one. Greg has
since died, and after many years of riding and slowly graduating from
rice grinders to Brits and finally to an old Shovelhead, Jacques ended
up at a fork in the road most of us eventually come to and where we
have to decide what our first custom bike is going to look like. He
enlisted the help of two friends to come up with his stunning silhouette.
"One day, two years ago, I was sitting around with my friends,
shooting the breeze. One was the bike's painter, Kirk Taylor, the other
was the engine builder, Norman Boeck, and together we started drawing
on paper napkins."

Presumably fueled
by several glasses of foamy brew, the trio soon gave birth to what
would truly become Jacques pride and joy. "We built it mostly in
my garage." says Jacques of this, his very first ground up project.
"Whatever I could not do, or didn't have the right tools for the
job, I farmed out to the pros. But everything on his bike was designed
by us. And Kirk did an outstanding job with the paint too. You might
not see it in these pictures, but under the flames, he put some skulls
and skeletons and such, and in the light it truly looks awesome."

Apparently the judges
at this years Easyriders Bike Show in Sacramento, California, were equally
impressed, as the chopper ended up taking home the second prize in the
Best of Show category. But Jacques also ended up going to the big one
in Columbus Ohio, were he placed third in the In The Wind category.
Not a small feat for a beginning builder.

"To
me this bike actually represents the love of the individual, but it
takes many individuals to accomplish something like this," Jaques
explains.

"A lot of my
friends jumped in to help." Even at his job in facilities at
nearby Dominican College, his
coworkers assisted in various degrees, and as a sign of his appreciation,
Jacques has placed the trophies he won at bike shows right on his desk.
No, they apparently are not going to replace the friar's crosses.

Now that I'm done
with the bike shows," he says, "I'm riding it a lot. That's
what it's all about: having fun." Surely Greg Zack would wholeheartedly
agree with that and give his old buddy his blessings from Harley Heaven.